


Necrosis

by picometre



Category: A3! (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-13
Updated: 2018-01-13
Packaged: 2019-03-04 09:42:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13361913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/picometre/pseuds/picometre
Summary: A few people attempt to survive in the zombie-infested town of Veludo.[Zombie Apocalypse AU]





	Necrosis

It was a quiet spring day. Izumi had a day off, and as was the tradition when she wasn’t buried in work, she searched through her collection of DVDs, picked a couple she hadn’t seen in a while and prepared everything so she could indulge in her favorite past-time: watching stage plays.  
From the earliest times she could remember, Izumi was in love with theater. There was something about the way the performers acted and said their lines which was enthralling, and she couldn’t stop watching them. If she could, she would have gone to the theater and seen performances live, but she didn’t have a lot of free time to do so. Usually, the seats to a play she was interested would usually sell out before she could make sure she could see it without any issue coming up with work. Thus, binge watching DVDs became her way to cope.  
Watching a stage play sometimes reminded Izumi of how she herself had dreamed of becoming an actress. She wanted to make people feel the same way than she felt while watching stage plays through her own acting. However, it never worked out. Quickly enough, she found out she had no talent at all for acting. A true daikon.  
Her career path thus changed abruptly, and she became a pharmacist instead. It was a drastic change from her acting dream, but it didn’t make no sense either; her father had been a pharmacist as well and had owned a pharmaceutical firm named Mankai Pharm. She liked her job, it kept her extremely busy, but it wasn’t unbearable either. It was alright. If she thought about it long enough, Izumi would always come to the conclusion that she enjoyed her life: she lived in a comfortable place, she had a job she liked, she still had some time to dedicate to her hobby, and she wasn’t actively looking for a soulmate, so being single was fine.  
The only thing that bothered her was her father.

The truth is, Izumi hadn’t heard about her father for six years now. When she found a job position as a pharmacist at a small place in Veludo, she immediately applied and got the job, thinking she would get close to her father as she knew he used to live there. However, she found nothing about either her father or Mankai Pharm, which she knew he had created when he lived in Veludo Way. It was as if everything her father stood for, including himself, had vanished. Izumi even tried asking her mother about her father’s whereabouts, but the older woman made it clear that she ignored it and didn’t care at all about him.

  
_“Nothing would change even if he died.”_

  
Thus, Izumi stopped searching after a while. She had grown used to her daily life in Veludo, doing her best to forget about her father’s sudden disappearance. She couldn’t help having back thoughts about him when she was busy thinking too much, however.

Now wasn’t the time and place to think too much about bothersome things. She had stage plays to watch, and she would watch them no matter what. The first play she decided to watch was the stage debut of promising actor Tenma Sumeragi. Izumi wasn’t very familiar with him, but from what she had heard from the stage play community, he had some previous experience as a child actor. He had a certain charisma, and she enjoyed watching him. If anything, she thought it’d be interesting to watch him perform live. Someday, perhaps, if she got lucky enough.

The climax of the play was about to unfold when the TV suddenly shut off. Izumi was confused and tried to turn it on again, to no avail. She quickly checked her phone she had left charging on the power outlet. She sighed in relief when she saw her phone wasn’t charging anymore. She would have been bummed out if the TV she had bought a month ago suddenly broke, but it only seemed to be a power outage. Surely a fuse needed replacing. She unplugged her phone – it was almost fully charged, anyway – and put it in her jeans’ back pocket. Then, she searched around her house for a new fuse, which she found in about 10 minutes. She was about to open her fuse box when she heard a knock on her door. It was surely a neighbor asking about the power outage.

“Wait a second!” she said.

Izumi opened her fuse box, but none of the fuse were damaged. She concluded it must have been a neighborhood power outage. At the same time, the knocks became more insistent. Izumi grew irritated, but she could put up with it for a bit more time. The neighbor would just have to be patient. She closed the fuse box and was about to put the new fuse back where she found it when the knocks became loud bangs. This time, Izumi had enough. She dashed to the front door and immediately started going on an angry rant as she opened it.

“Jeez, can’t you be patient!? I know it’s annoying for the power to be cut out like that but I’m not the-“

A shriek and a sudden strong hold on her shoulders cut Izumi in the middle of her rant. She looked at the person in front of her and realized they were about to bite her. Izumi immediately reacted by violently pushing the person off her. Thankfully, the push was enough to destabilize the person and set Izumi free. She made a few steps back, and was horrified to see the person she was facing was a woman in a disgusting state of rotting and a gaping wound on her neck and shoulder that was blackened and rotting. Izumi did her best to resist the urge to vomit and instead tried to escape from the woman who was already dashing towards her. Izumi moved as fast as she could away from the person, but they seemed to never get tired of it. The only times Izumi could breathe a bit was when she managed to make the person crash against a door or a wall. It made a disgusting squelch sound and the woman’s face would slowly fall apart when it happened, making Izumi feel nauseous, but it was the only time she could get to think about what to do next.  
The cat-and-mouse game lasted for what felt like an eternity, Izumi not finding the right time to run away from home or simply call for help. Then, she made a mistake and was cornered by the rotting woman right against the kitchen counter. Izumi panicked, screaming, pushing and kicking the rotting woman away, feeling disgusted every time she could feel the mess of rotten flesh and pus making direct contact with her hands or arms. No matter what happened, she had to make sure the woman would not bite her, as her teeth seemed to be her only real weapon.  
A rush of adrenaline kicked in and Izumi found enough strength to push her opponent far back enough to buy her some time to take out the biggest knife she had lying around with her trembling hands. Then, as soon as the rotting corpse approached her, Izumi dashed forward, screaming, and stabbed her opponent’s face as hard as she could. After a moment, the corpse stopped struggling against her and fell on the floor with a loud thump.

Izumi stood still for a moment, still trembling as she held the knife tainted with the corpse’s blood. In her desperate bout of murderous violence, she had managed to destroy the corpse’s eyes. She couldn’t believe what she had done. She… she had killed someone. That someone was rotting and was probably already dead anyway, but she had still murdered someone. Izumi dropped the knife on the floor and took out her phone. With still trembling hands, she composed the police’s number, but couldn’t reach them. She tried again, but it was useless, nobody would answer. She checked her phone to be sure, but there was no network.

“Fuck!”

She put her phone back in her pocket, she would call the police later. Her current concern was to get out of her building while avoiding anything like that corpse. If there was a chance that corpses like this woman were roaming around the building, Izumi would be screwed for sure if she remained here any longer.

Izumi took the second biggest knife she had in her kitchen and carefully left the room, making sure not to accidentally step on the corpse still lying motionless on the floor. She grabbed an empty backpack she had lying around, and inside put as much medical supplies as she could and her phone charger, in case she found a power outlet and a place with network later on. She hesitated to go back to the kitchen, but she had to. There was no guarantee she would find water or food outside, after all.  
Izumi took things slowly, opening and closing fridge and cupboard doors as carefully as possible to minimize the noise she would make, still wondering if the corpse she harmed was truly dead or not. She prioritized getting a water bottle and dry things she could eat on the way without growing too hungry. Izumi had her fears confirmed when she could hear the corpse let out low moans. She hurried up and left her apartment with a filled backpack.

She ran as fast as she could to get outside the building, but the scene she was directly faced with terrified her.

Rotting corpses, all standing and walking towards her, letting out low moans of agony. Izumi searched for the knife she wanted to take with her, but realized with fear that she had forgotten it in her apartment. She turned back, hoping she could quickly go back home and retrieve it, but she couldn’t as two corpses were coming out from the building’s entrance. The more Izumi looked around, the more she felt trapped.

_“This is the end… isn’t it?”_

Izumi could only stand still as the corpses were steadily approaching her and she could do nothing but come to terms with her imminent death. She almost accepted she was going to die a gruesome death when she suddenly heard loud honking, followed by the disgusting sounds of bones cracking and flesh squelching.  
She turned to the direction of the honking, and what she saw felt surreal. A punk-looking guy with blond hair and an undercut was sticking his head out from the driver window of a road roller, screaming and honking away as he crushed the undead with the vehicle.  
Now, instead of being afraid she’d get eaten by corpses, Izumi was terrified she’d be crushed to death by a maniac driving a road roller. A small part of her thought that if someone out here could get rid of walking corpses like that, it was better to try and catch their attention.

“Hey! Help me!”

Izumi screamed as hard as she could, waving her arms to try and get the attention of the driver. When the road roller got closer to her, she could hear another man’s voice, and the driver stopped the vehicle when it arrived next to her. The door opened from the passenger side and a blond man wearing glasses and a long black coat got up from his seat and stuck his arm out toward Izumi.

“Get up here! Fast!”

Izumi dashed, took the man’s hand and as he pulled her inside, the driver sped up and Izumi ended up crashing on the glasses-wearing man.

“Close the door!”

Izumi hurriedly slammed the door shut, and she barely had time to properly sit down that the glasses-wearing man, who quickly recovered, shot a glare at the driver.

“God damn it, Sakoda.” He said. “What the hell did you speed up for? She was still getting in.”  
“Sorry, Aniki, but a bro’s gotta do what he’s gotta do to make sure we all stay alive, you know? I mean, those zombies are still all around us.”  
“She could have fallen the other way.”  
“It’s okay, I’m fine!” Izumi said. “Well, it’s thanks to you both.”

There was an awkward silence between them, the only thing breaking the silence being the sound of corpses getting crushed outside. Izumi thought she’d try to start conversation a bit.

“My name is Tachibana Izumi.”  
The glasses-wearing man looked surprised. “Tachibana?”  
“Huh? What’s wrong?”  
“Sorry, that name sounded familiar. Surely a coincidence. I’m Furuichi Sakyo.”  
“And I’m Sakoda Ken!” added Sakoda.  
“Nice to meet you both, Furuichi-san, Sakoda-san.”

Izumi had a lot to ask to these two men, but she thought she’d keep her questions for later. For now, the only question she’d allow herself to ask was the most obvious.

“Where are we going?”  
“To the Mankai Warehouse.”  
“Mankai!?”  
“What’s the matter?”  
“Excuse me, Furuichi-san, are you familiar with the name Mankai Pharm?”

  
Sakyo paused for a moment, then answered.

“Yes, I am. The Mankai Warehouse building used to be the main building for Mankai Pharm. The owner left on a whim someday. The only man who was willing to stay working there had trouble holding everything together, including the employee team, and he was forced to give up on the building. My boss found no use for the place besides making a warehouse out of it. The employees of the previous Mankai Pharm found jobs elsewhere, except for one who wanted to stay in Mankai no matter what.” Pause. “As you can tell, my boss decided we’d keep the name Mankai for the place. Tacky, if you want my opinion.”  
“The previous owner of Mankai Pharm, was he named Tachibana Yukio?”  
“… Who exactly are you to that man?”  
“I’m his daughter.”

Silence. It looked as if Sakyo wanted to say something, but the words didn’t come out. Instead, he let out a sigh.

“Furuichi-san? What’s wrong? Do you know anything about my father?”  
“Don’t mind me.” Pause. “I’m afraid the only thing I know about your father is his name, but you might learn more about him in the warehouse.”  
“Is it still far from here?”  
“Nah, we’re arriving soon!” Sakoda said.

A couple of minutes later, the road roller stopped in front of a huge building. Sakoda was the first to get off. Sakyo and Izumi followed when Sakoda made sure no undead was around.  
Izumi almost felt nauseous when she noticed the road roller had left a trail of blood on its way. She shook her head and tried to ignore it. Blood was something she was going to see daily now, she had to get used to it somehow.

“I’ll be the first going,” Sakyo said, opening the warehouse door. “Sakoda, make sure Tachibana doesn’t get hurt.”  
“I can defend myself.” She said.  
“But do you _have_ anything to defend yourself with?”  
“Well… I don’t, but this is a warehouse, anything can become a weapon with some creativity put into it.”

Sakyo sighed and led the way to the warehouse. As expected, it was full of various things, but what caught Izumi’s eyes the most was the presence of guns. Her initial reaction was to feel relieved there was something she could defend herself with, but that feeling died down when she realized what Sakyo and Sakoda’s ilk might be dabbling in.  
The further the small group went into the warehouse, the more at ease Izumi felt despite finding it odd that nobody was working in there. Eventually, they reached a door with a ‘break room’ label on it.

A man was sleeping on a table inside the break room, snoring lightly. He had prepared everything for his break nap as he had wrapped himself with a blanket and had even taken a pillow to rest his head on. Izumi felt a bit envious watching him sleep so peacefully.  
Unfortunately for the sleeping man, Sakyo got irritated looking at him.

“Oi, Matsukawa! Wake up!”  
“Eek!” The man woke up startled and frantically tapped around to find something. At last, he found a pair of round glasses and put them on, looking at the small group. He had messy hair and stubble. He wasn’t the kind of man Izumi expected to be working in a warehouse either as he wasn’t that muscular. “S-Sorry, Furuichi-san, I was finished with work, so I thought I would—”  
“That’s not the point. Tell me, have you seen walking corpses in the warehouse?”  
“Walking corpses? You mean, zombies?”  
“Yes, or undead, whatever you call them. Have you seen them?”  
“Furuichi-san, are you alright? You didn’t hit your head against anything, did you?”  
“Oi, don’t talk to Aniki like that!” Sakoda interjected.  
“Eek! S-Sorry!” Pause. “But really, I haven’t seen anything that could resemble walking corpses.”  
“Good. This is still a safe place.”  
“What exactly is going on? Am I having a nightmare? Can someone pinch me?”  
“I am not doing that, Matsukawa.” Sakyo said.  
“Aniki, can I do it?”  
“No, Sakoda.”

Izumi approached Matsukawa and pinched his cheek.

“Ow!” Matsukawa saw Izumi and seemed to have realized something. “Ah, sorry, Miss, I didn’t even ask who you were or greeted you!”  
“It’s okay. My name is Tachibana Izumi.”  
“I’m Matsukawa Isuke, proud employee of Mankai Warehouse! Well… the only one who sticks around anyway.”  
“Thinking about it, where are the other employees?” Izumi asked.  
“The other employees are part-timers.” Sakyo replied. “Assuming they went home after their shift, they’re probably dead by now.”

Silence. Matsukawa couldn’t stay silent, however.

“Dead? How?”  
“Do you ever listen? There are undead, walking corpses, zombies, whatever the hell you want to call them roaming around Veludo right now, and they're hungry for human flesh.”  
“Alright. Let me check the date.” Matsukawa freed himself from his blanket fortress, revealing he was wearing a dark blue uniform with a white ‘Mankai’ label embroidered on a breast pocket. He searched through one of the multiple pockets on his uniform and pulled out a flip phone. He checked it. “I get it. I totally get it.” He put his phone away. “We’re a bit late for April Fools Day, you know?”  
“You fucker—” Sakoda was about to grab Matsukawa by his uniform’s collar, but he was stopped by Sakyo.  
“Calm down, Sakoda.”  
“But, Aniki!”  
“Now really isn’t the time to go around punching people, especially not the guy who knows this warehouse better than anyone else.” Pause. He looked at Matsukawa with insistence. “Matsukawa. Look into my eyes and tell me: do I really look like I’m joking? Do you think that when I woke up this morning, I’d just go around pretending zombies are real and have Sakoda and a random woman play along? I saw them killing my colleagues, ripping their flesh apart with their teeth. I saw them being crushed to a pulp by the road roller we were lucky to be riding at the time.”  
“He’s right, Matsukawa-san.” Izumi added. “I was attacked by one of those corpses in my home and had to fight for my life to escape. I don’t think I could have made it if it weren’t for Furuichi-san and Sakoda-san coming at the right time.”

Matsukawa stared silently at the small group for a moment and hesitated before replying.

“Alright, I’ll believe you for now.” Pause. “What am I doing in the picture then?”  
“Matsukawa, from an inventory standpoint, how long can we survive staying in this warehouse?”  
“There’s enough food to last a couple of years if we’re the only people who stay in here. If someone else ever comes, we might have over a year of food for about… twenty, thirty people. If we are really going through a zombie apocalypse, though, running water may become a problem later on, though there are water bottles to help us last through.” Pause. “As for weapons and ammo, that’s taking about half of the warehouse, so I guess we won’t have any problem fending off the zombies if they try to invade this place.”  
“What about fuel? Power? Medical supplies?”  
“Fuel will also become hard to come by after a while, but if we don’t use vehicles a lot, we might be able to make it last longer than expected. If power ever gets cut out, there are a couple generators we could use, but that’s about it. As for medical supplies… well, let’s hope we don’t get injured often.”  
“Thank you, Matsukawa.”  
“So, Aniki, what are we gonna do now?”

Sakyo sat at the table, facing Matsukawa, and invited Izumi and Sakoda to sit down next to Matsukawa. It felt like a boss about to talk to his employees about an important project.

“Let’s set the record straight. If we want to survive, we’ll have to stick together and be organized. From now on, this break room will be our meeting room. Every morning, we’ll need to meet up here and discuss plans for each day together. That way, everyone will get to have a say on the matter, and we can also keep track of the warehouse’s resources. There are plenty of rooms we can use to sleep in. Having a room per person would be suicidal if zombies ever came to invade the warehouse, so I suggest sleeping in pairs and shifts. Matsukawa and Sakoda, tonight you’ll be sleeping together. I will be sleeping with Tachibana.” Pause. “Any questions?”  
“What about the food?” Izumi asked.  
“If someone wants to take up cooking duty, the position is open.”  
“Guess I’ll do it, then. I mean, if there’s even a kitchen in this warehouse.”  
“Don’t worry, Tachibana-san!” Matsukawa said. “I’ll show you around the warehouse.”

The group talked about the organization in the warehouse for a long time, then Sakyo dismissed everyone. Matsukawa showed Izumi around the warehouse and she spent some time cooking for the group. In the end, the break room where they found Matsukawa would become not only their meeting room but also the place Izumi and Sakyo would sleep in. The whole situation felt unreal. This morning, she was excited about watching a stage play, and now, she was hiding in a warehouse with men she had just met from walking corpses.  
After the small party ate Izumi’s food – which she got a lot of compliments on from Sakoda and Matsukawa – they once again separated, but this time Izumi was with Sakyo for the night. There were a lot of questions on her mind, mostly about whether everyone would survive or not, but she said nothing. Sakyo wasn’t the most talkative person either and, due to the situation, it was obvious he wasn’t in the mood to make small talk with a stranger.  
Izumi closed her eyes. Thoughts of the undead flashed in her mind, but she dismissed them by thinking about her new companions. She hoped that everyone would be able to survive until the end, and that someday they would be able to go back to a normal life. She slept dreaming about stage plays and her daily routine that night.

**Author's Note:**

> i can't believe i'm posting something on here again after like almost a year the fuck  
> there's no guarantee i'll ever finish this au but you can at least enjoy how i probably butcher (no pun intended) a3 charas bc the fuck is a characterization am i right


End file.
